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CHAPTER SIX
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 6.0 Introduction
Chapter Six summarizes and concludes the whole study. There are five sections in this chapter. Section one presents the summary of the major findings of the present study.
Section two presents the pedagogical implications based on the findings of the present study. Section three presents the contribution of the present study. And section four presents the limitations and future suggestions.
6.1 Summary of the Major Findings
The purpose of this study was to explore how certain enduring and situational variables enhanced the WTC of a private high school student in Taiwan. To achieve this goal, two research questions were proposed. The researcher used four qualitative research methods, including class observation, student journals, one-time semi-structured
interview, and two-time semi-structured interviews to answer the research questions. In addition, one questionnaire, the MFQ, was also used to find out what certain enduring variables that influence the participant’s WTC in different situations. The findings of the present study were summarized into two sections to answer the two research questions.
1. How did some enduring factors enhance the WTC of the participant in the study?
2. How did some situational factors enhance the WTC of the participant in the study?
The first research question aimed at finding out how some enduring variables enhanced the WTC of the participant in the present study. The researcher used the themes described in Chapter Five for the summary of the case.
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There were three enduring variables, parental involvement, informal linguistic environments, and learner’s core beliefs, that influenced the WTC of the participant in the present study.
The MFQ showed that Walter’s parents, relatives, and friends all wanted him to be good at English. In addition, Walter’s parents not only showed encouraging attitudes towards English learning, they were also involved in his English learning process. First, Walter’s dad requested him to translate some English videos for him. Second, Walter’s mother demanded him to chat with her in English every Tuesday night. Third, Walter’s parents took him to the annual golf competitions and family trips. These activities showed how much Walter’s parents cared about English learning, and they also made him more motivated to learn English.
An intake environment of an informal linguistic environment refers to an
environment in which a learner could use L2 meaningfully and constantly. In the present research, Walter’s parents took him to the golf competition and family trip every year.
Walter did a lot of English oral communication in these trips. In addition, Walter played video games with online foreign digital gamers at home. During the play, they discussed about gaming strategies in English. These informal linguistic environments truly enhanced his WTC and improved his language abilities.
Walter’s three core beliefs also influenced his WTC and English learning. First, he believed in talking with foreigners in their native languages. Second, he believed that he liked western-style of education. Third, he believed that grammar was only useful in English writing, not in English oral communication. The first belief made him more eager to talk to foreigners in English. The second belief made him participate a lot in the ESL class, but not in Ms. Lin’s class. The last belief of the uselessness of grammar in English oral communication also made him less willing to put more efforts on grammar learning.
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The second research question aimed at finding out how some situational factors enhanced the WTC of the participant in the study. There were three situational variables that influenced the participant’s WTC in the present study, teaching style and teacher immediacy, class size, and topics.
The teaching style of a teacher did influence Walter’s WTC in the present study. In the interviews, Walter mentioned that in Ms. Lin’s class, one student could only speak one sentence in one session. On the other hand, he mentioned that he could speak English for probably ten minutes in every ESL session. The different teaching styles of the two teachers influenced his WTC greatly. In addition, Ms. Lin’s class focused on teaching vocabulary and structure, and she did not tolerate mistakes much. On the contrary, the ESL teacher was mistake-tolerant and non-critical, and he also discussed his personal life to shorten the distance between him and the students. In addition, the ESL teacher also used many communicative activities in class. The teaching style and teacher immediacy of the ESL teacher all raised Walter’s WTC, whereas the teaching style and seriousness of Ms. Lin both hindered his WTC.
Walter’s ESL class had only four students, whereas Ms. Lin’s English class had fifteen students. In Ms. Lin’s class, because the number of students were more, each student had shorter time to talk in class. In addition, the larger the class, the more anxiety the students have for English oral communication due to the number of audiences. On the contrary, since there were only four students in the ESL class, Walter felt relaxed, less anxious, and had high WTC in class.
The ESL teacher chose discussion topics from the textbooks often. However, since most of the students in class did not have the knowledge of the necessary vocabulary or structure, or the necessary professional knowledge to carry on the discussions, these topics could also hinder Walter’s WTC. According to Walter, he enjoyed talking about his
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personal experiences, such as his golf competitions, family trips, and his favorite countries and movies. Student-chosen topics could enhance Walter’s WTC since he had more knowledge and experience on them. In addition, student-chosen topics could enhance his task-interest and task-confidence, which also enhance his WTC.